SM Entertainment Idol Exposed For “Copy Pasting” Lyrics From Black Artists

A post exposing well-known boy group Shinhwa’s extensive plagiarism — including multiple uses of the N-word — has gone viral among Korean netizens, triggering intense backlash.

The post, titled “Shinhwa Eric’s rap lyrics unearthed on YouTube for plagiarism,” quickly racked up over 100,000 views and more than 700 heated comments on Korean community platform TheQoo. In the post, a netizen linked to several YouTube videos documenting word-for-word plagiarism across the SM Entertainment group’s discography, noting that they found a whopping 21 videos on the channel.

The videos in question show the group’s songs lifting lyrics from numerous Black artists, including Foxy Brown, Outkast, and Da Brat.

In most cases, only minimal changes were made to the lyrics in Shinhwa’s songs, mostly to swap out the original artist’s name. In Shinhwa’s “Wedding,” for example, the line “Hold up, let’s take it from the top, I Fox” from Foxy Brown’s “Get Me Home” is changed to “Hold up, let’s take it from the top, hot box.” Outside of this, the lyrics remain virtually identical to the source material.

The controversy has sparked widespread disbelief among netizens, many of whom insisted they had no idea the lyrics were copied when they first heard the songs.

Several pointed out how easy it must have been to plagiarize during Shinhwa’s active years in the late ’90s and early 2000s, while others mentioned being confused by the English rap verses at the time, noting they didn’t match the Korean lyrics of songs like “I Pray 4 U” at all.

Beyond the copying itself, many were particularly disturbed by the group’s use of the N-word. Not only did Shinhwa keep the word in lyrics where it originally appeared, they also inserted it into songs where it wasn’t used to begin with. For example, when taking lyrics from Da Brat’s “Funkdafied,” the line “Brat and J.D.” was replaced with the N-word.

• “He copied it including the N-word???”
• “He’s got no common sense. And I think he said he lived in the US too, but still used the N-word?”
• “Wow.”
• “Back then, all those celebrities used to copy stuff from overseas and cash in.”
• “Wow…”
• “If he put the N-word in lyrics now, Western fans would totally flip out. Seriously, he was lucky with the timing.”
• “What even is this? I’m shocked.”
• “Wow, I was born in the ’80s but it’s my first time hearing about this kind of controversy. “I Pray 4 U” isn’t even that kind of song, so I was surprised to see those lyrics. How brainless do you have to be to just Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V like that?”

Some netizens even admitted that they originally believed the N-word was actually the Korean word ‘니가’ (niga), meaning “you,” with many surprised that Shinhwa’s Eric would use the word given that he was raised in the United States through middle school and high school.

While some commenters originally questioned whether Eric really stole the raps, noting that he isn’t credited on streaming platforms like Melon, original fans shared several photos of the group’s original lyric booklets, where he is seen credited with “rap making.”

While this viral post marked the first time most netizens had heard about the group’s plagiarism, Shinhwa were plagued by controversies during the career. In particular, alongside receiving backlash for allegedly making light of the 1998 Sokcho submarine incident (which claimed nine lives), they were frequently accused of borrowing heavily from the sound of their labelmates, H.O.T.